52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 13 "Light a Candle"

Both my paternal and maternal grandparents lost their first child only two days after they were born. With this blog post, I am lighting two candles in memory of my aunt and uncle.

Paul Joseph Huigens

My Uncle Paul was born in 1914 in Knox County, Nebraska, most likely on his parent's farm in Logan Township. 

He is not forgotten.

Ardis Rosemary Ogden

My Aunt Ardis was born in 1930 in Sheridan County, Nebraska, most likely at her parent's home in Rushville. 

She is not forgotten.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 4 "Education"

Esther Louise Johnson in about 1920

 On the 1940 US Census, they asked for each person's Highest Grade of School Completed. For my maternal grandmother, Esther Louise (Johnson) Ogden (1902-1984) the entry is "H3" meaning that she only completed three years of high school. You might wonder why she did not finish high school with only one year to go. Luckily I don't have to wonder because my mother shared her mother's story with me.

In the summer of 1920, after Esther's junior year of high school in Gordon, Sheridan County, Nebraska, her parents, Swedish immigrant Gustav Johnson (1867-1941) and Rosabell (Strayer) Johnson (1872-1955), decided to move their family from Gordon to Henning, Otter Tail County, Minnesota. When my grandmother went to register for high school in Henning, she was told that she would have to complete two years of high school there rather than just the one. Something about a difference in education standards between where she came from and Henning. My grandmother said nuts to that and never enrolled in her new high school.

Several years later she went back to Sheridan County to visit her cousins. A young man there named Emery Ogden was dating one of her cousins. After meeting Esther and getting to know her, he dropped the cousin and began courting Esther. There were married in Rushville, Sheridan County, Nebraska on 19 March 1929. 

Their first daughter Ardis Rosemary Ogden was born in Sheridan County on 20 September 1930. She died only two days later. My grandmother was so frightened by that experience that when it came time for my mom, Shirley Ann Ogden (1931-2014) to be born, Esther went to back to Henning to be with her mother for the birth. That is why my mother was born in Minnesota and not Nebraska where her parents were living. 

Mystery Solved: Farm Located

I have finally been able to locate the farm in Sheridan County, Nebraska that my dad grew up on. Here is how I managed to find it.

I had two pieces of information from my mother to go on:

1. Logan C. Musser owned it--my grandfather just leased it 
2. It was northwest of Rushville, within walking distance 

Yesterday I learned that World War 2 "Old Man's Draft" registration cards from April, 1942 had two sides. The indexed images of the front side that are available on ancestry.com, I knew about. I did not know that if you click through to the next image, you can see the back side of the card, which contains height, weight, eye color, hair color and a few more pieces of information. You can read more about that draft here and here. I immediately went online to check out the second image for my male relatives in that age range. From my grandfather, Joseph Andrew Huigens' card, I learned that he had hazel eyes like mine.

But what really caught my eye, and what I had failed to notice before, was that he listed his address on the front of the card as "section 22-32-44." That was exciting because it gave me what I hoped were the section, township and range in which the farm was located.

It took me a while to track down a set of online historic plat maps for Nebraska Sheridan County, but I finally located a set from 1914 in an ancestry.com database: Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918. Townships in some western Nebraska counties were not named but use a number instead. I was able to find the image for Township 32 N in Range 44 W.

Section 22 is listed as being owned by M. P. Musser and not Logan C. Musser, but I guessed they were related and ownership had changed between 1914 and 1926. It was also just north of Rushville and very much within walking distance of the town.

Further research in the book Recollections of Sheridan County Nebraska (Sheridan County Historical Society (Neb.). 1976. [Place of publication not identified]: Printed by Iron Man Industries.) turned up the fact that banker M. P. Musser died in 1914, the year of the plat map and his son was Logan C. Musser. So Logan had indeed inherited the land after his father died and owned it when my grandfather arrived in 1926.

Here is what Section 22 looks like on Google Maps today.



I still need to discover why my father moved the family west in 1926 and when they left the farm and moved into Rushville. I'm also intrigued by the fairgrounds shown in section 22 in 1914. My dad never mentioned any fairgrounds and the Sheridan County Fair takes place in Gordon. I'm guessing they moved the fair long before my grandfather came and leased the land. I'll need to contact the Sheridan County Historical Society about that.

Census Sunday: Joseph Huigens family in the 1940 US Census

Here is my transcription of the census entry for my father's family from the 1940 US Census. This was his second appearance in the US Census.

State: NE
County: Sheridan
Township, or other division of county: Rushville pct
S. D. No. 5
E.D. No. 81-26

Location
1. Street, avenue, road, etc.
2. House number (in cities and towns)

Household Data
3. Number of Household: 88
4. Home owned or rented: R
5. Value of home (if owned) or monthly rental (if rented): 8
6. Does this household live on a farm? Yes

7. Name of person:	Higgins, Joseph A*	Higgins, Julia M	Higgins, Arnold F	Higgins, Lawrence J	Higgins, Rita	Higgins, Bernice M	Higgins, Joseph A
8. Relationship of this person to head of household:	Head	Wife	Son	Son	Daughter	Daughter	Son
9. Sex:	M	F	M	M	F	F	M
10. Color or Race:	W	W	W	W	W	W	W
11. Age at last birthday:	49	45	23	22	21	18	13
12. Marital Status:	M	M	S	S	S	S	S
13. Attended school or college any time since March 1, 1940:	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
14. Highest grade of school  completed:	H2	8	H4	7	H4	H3	6
15. Place of birth:	Nebraska	Nebraska	Nebraska	Nebraska	Nebraska	Nebraska	Nebraska
16. Citizenship of foreign born:
17. Residence on 1 April, 1935 - City or town:	Same house	Same house	Same house	Same house	Same house	Same house	Same house
18. Residence on 1 April, 1935 - County:
19. Residence on 1 April, 1935 - State or foreign country:
20. On a farm?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
21. Was this person AT WORK for pay or profit in private or nonemergency Gov't. work during week of March 24-30? (Yes or No):	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
22. If not, was he at work on, or assigned to, public EMERGENCY WORK (WPA, NYA, CCC, etc.) during -week of March 24-30? (Yes or No):	-	No	Yes	-	-	No
23. If neither at work nor assigned to public emergency work. ("No" in Cols. 21 and 22), Was this person SEEKING WORK?(Yes or No):	-	No	-	-	-	No
24. If not seeking work, did he HAVE A JOB, business, etc.? (Yes or No):	-	No	-	-	-	No
25. Indicate whether engaged in home house-work (H), in school (S), unable to work (U), or other (Ot):	-	H	-	-	-	S
26. Number of hours worked during week of March 24-30, 1940:	60			60	50
27. Duration of unemployment up to March 30, 1940 - in weeks:			52
28. Occupation: Trade, profession, or particular kind of work, as frame spinner, salesman, rivet heater ,music teacher:	farmer		CCC painter	carpenter helper	waitress
29. Industry: Industry or business, as cotton mill, retail grocery, farm, shipyard, public school:	on farm		building constr	building consruction	restaurant
30. Class of worker:	OA	NP	GW	PW	PW	NP
31. Number of weeks worked in 1939 (Equivalent full-time weeks):	52	52	46	30	28	12
32, Income in 1939 (12 months ended December 31, 1939): Amount of money wages or salary received (including commissions):	0	0	230	225	80
33. Did this person receive income of $50 or more from sources other than money wages or salary (Yes or No):	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
34. Number of farm schedule:	63

Source citation: 

1940 U.S. census, Sheridan County, Nebraska,  Rushville pct , population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 81-26, Sheet No. 5B, household 88, line 47, Joseph Higgins; digital image, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census (Beta) [database on-line, accessed 5-Aug-2012]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.

1940 US Census Finds

I found my great-grandparents, John and Mary Huigens in Creighton, NE on ancestry.com:

While looking for them, I also found the families of their sons' BJ and Ed, my grandmother's uncle, John Kennedy, Jr. with his wife and kids, and my grandmother's sister Iona with her husband Fred Dostal. There are probably a lot more relatives in Creighton. They will have to wait until there's an index.

I then found my 13-year-old dad with his family in Sheridan Co., NE. The census taker spelled the name Higgins, but that's them all right. I'm surprised to see that my grandfather had completed 2 years of high school. That's unusual for a farm kid back then.

I'm still looking for my mom's first appearance in the US Census with her family on a farm near Pine Ridge in Shannon Co., SD. Only the NARA has the SD pages on-line but it is a slow hit-or-miss proposition on each page and there are 8 Enumeration Districts to choose from. It may take awhile, but I'll find her.

Census Sunday: 1940 US Census

I've identified the eleven ancestors that I want to look up on Tuesday.
2. Joseph A. Huigens, Jr
3. Shirley A, Ogden
4. Joseph A. Huigens
5. Julia Huigens
6. Emery J. Ogden
7. Esther L. Ogden
8. John Huigens
9. Mary Huigens
12. William F. Ogden
14. Gustaf A. Johnson
15. Rose Johnson

That's a lot of people. More than I thought I'd find. My dad's other grandparents died in the early 1930's. My mom's grandmother died in 1938.

Fortunately I can reduce this to five households.
1. Joseph A., Julia and Joseph A. Huigens
2. Emery J., Esther L. and Shirley A. Ogden
3. John and Mary Huigens
4. William F. Ogden
5. Gustaf A. and Rose Johnson

Next comes determining where they lived in 1940 and then the Enumeration District (ED). For four of these households, this is a piece of cake. They lived in the same place they did in 1930. So all I have to do is find the ED for 1930 and use Stephen Morse and Joel Weintraub's 1940 ED Finder to convert them. Here's the results.

1. Joe and Julia Huigens family in Sheridan CO., NE 1930: 81-27 1940: 81-7, 81-12, 81-18, 81-26
2. Emery and Esther Ogden family near Pine Ridge, Shannon Co., SD
3. John and Mary Huigens in Creighton, NE 1930: 54-6 1940: 54-6
4. William Ogden in Mission, SD 1930: 61-40 1940: 61-1, 61-26
5. Gust and Rose Johnson in Henning, MN 1930: 56-45 1940: 56-46

So that's a little more complicated than I thought. Only two are a direct one-for-one. Still it won't be too bad. These are rural, sparsely populated areas, so I won't have too many pages to look through. By reading the ED descriptions, I can make some educated guesses which EDs to start with.

According to my mom, her family was living on a dairy farm near Pine Ridge, SD when her sister Margie was born in Nov. 1940. That's not where they were in 1930, 1935 or 1945. There are only 8 EDs for Shannon Co., SD: 57-1 through 57-8. Again, these are areas with low populations so it won't take long to scan through them.

It looks like I'm all set for Tues. The harder part will be trying to find various generations of aunts, uncles and cousins. That's a whole other ballgame.

SNGF: Guess Your Ancestor's 1940 Census Data

Here's tonight's topic from Randy Seaver:
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Guess Your Ancestor's 1940 Census Data

Hey genea-census-holics... it's Saturday Night, time for more Genealogy Fun!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (come on, you know that you want to!), is to:

1) Pick one of the persons from your ancestry who should be in the 1940 United States Census.

2) Using the column headings below (from 1940 United States Census Questions), predict what the entries will be in each column.

3) Share your predictions on your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook status or a Google Plus post.

Like Randy, I'm going to do my mother. She was bummed out 10 years ago that my dad was in the 1930 US Census and she wasn't. Well, time has passed and on Tuesday, she will appear. Here's what I think I'll find. It's hard to know where her family was in 1940 because my grandfather moved them back and forth between Shannon Co. SD and Sheridan Co. NE often during these years. My mom claims she had 5 different teachers in 5th grade because of all the moves.

*  State:  Hard to say, she may be in South Dakota or Nebraska
*  Populated Place: White Clay, Sheridan Co., NE or Pine Ridge, Shannon Co., SD
*  Ward of City:  I don't think either of these places is big enough to have had wards
*  County:  Sheridan Co., NE or Shannon Co. SD
*  Township or other division of county:  No idea
*  Block Nos.:  ???
*  Enumeration District:  I still need to look these up

1.  Location - street, avenue or road:  ??? (Luckily these are sparsely populated areas)
2.  Location - house number:  ???

3.  Number of household:  ???
4.  Home owned or rented:  R
5.  Value of home (if owned) or monthly rental (if rented):  $100
6.  Does this household live on a farm?  Maybe
7.  Name of person:  Shirley A. Ogden
8.  Relationship of this person to head of household:  Daughter

9.  Sex:  F[emale]
10.  Color or Race:  W[hite]
11.  Age at last birthday:  8
12.  Marital Status:  S[ingle]

13.  Attended school or college any time since March 1, 1940:  Yes
14.  Highest grade of school completed:  C-2

15.  Place of birth:  Minnesota
16.  Citizenship of foreign born: [blank]

17.  Residence on 1 April, 1935 - City or town:  Batesland
18.  Residence on 1 April, 1935 - County: Shannon
19.  Residence on 1 April, 1935 - State or foreign country: SD (Thank you, 1935 SD Census!)
20.  On a farm?  Yes

21.  Was this person AT WORK for pay or profit in private or nonemergency Gov't. work during week of March 24-30? (Yes or No): No
22:  If not, was he at work on, or assigned to, public EMERGENCY WORK (WPA, NYA, CCC, etc.) during week of March 24-30? (Yes or No): No
23. If neither at work nor assigned to public emergency work. ("No" in Cols. 21 and 22), Was this person SEEKING WORK (Yes or No):  No
24. If not seeking work, did he HAVE A JOB, business, etc.? (Yes or No):  No
25. Indicate whether engaged in home house-work (H), in school (S), unable to work (U), or other (Ot): S
26. Number of hours worked during week of March 24-30, 1940: 0
27. If seeking work or assigned to public emergency work. ("Yes" in Col. 22 or 23); Duration of unemployment up to March 30, 1940 - in weeks:  0

28.  Occupation: Trade, profession, or particular kind of work, as frame spinner, salesman, rivet heater ,music teacher:  [blank]
29. Industry: Industry or business, as cotton mill, retail grocery, farm, shipyard, public school:[blank]
30. Class of worker: [blank]
31. Number of weeks worked in 1939 (Equivalent full-time weeks): 0

32.  Income in 1939 (12 months ended December 31, 1939): Amount of money wages or salary received (including commissions):  0
33. Did this person receive income of $50 or more from sources other than money wages or salary (Yes or No): No
34.  Number of farm schedule: [blank]

February 2012: Status of research on Mary Julia Kain

Here is the status of my research on my paternal grandmother. Currently all of this information is in a Google doc document file. I'm playing around with Evernote and am considering moving each of these to a note in an Evernote notebook. I'll let you know how that works out.

5. Mary Julia KAIN
What was her full name?
        Mary Julia KAIN: SS-5, delayed birth record w/reference to baptism certificate
        Julia M: 1900, 1920 US Census record

Julia: 1910, 1930 US Census record

Miss Julia KAIN: Marriage License

Julia Marian KAIN: JAH2 Birth Certificate 1927

Julia HUIGENS: NE state death record

To do: St. Ludger baptism record, newspapers, children’s vital records

Who were her parents?

Francis Joseph KAIN and Margaret KENNEDY: SS-5

Frank KAIN and Margaret KENNEDY: delayed birth record

Frank J and Margaret H KAIN: 1900 US Census

Frank J and Margaret KAIN: marriage license

Frank and Margaret KAIN: obit, 1910 US Census

Frank KAIN and Mary KENNEDY: NE state death record

To-do: St. Ludger baptism record, newspapers, parents’ obituaries

When was she born?

19-May-1894: Grave marker, obituary, funeral card, SSDI, marriage license, SS-5, NE state death record, delayed birth record

May 1894: 1900 US Census record (Age 6)

1894: 1910 (Age 15 before her 1910 birthday), 1920 (Age 25 before her 1920 birthday) US Census records

1896: 1930 US Census record (Age 34 after her 1930 birthday)

To-do: St. Ludger baptism record, newspapers

Where was she born?
        Creighton: Obituary

Creighton, NE: SS-5, delayed birth record

NE:1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 US Census records

In 1903, Kain farm house was SW of Bazile Mills and NW of Creighton (Closer to Bazile Mills  than to Creighton), NW corner of SW quarter of section 8 of Creighton Twp. : 1903 Knox County Atlas

http://beta.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/103214/Creighton+Township++Bazile+Mills

/Knox+County+1903/Nebraska/

To-do: find location of family in 1894 in land records, county directory, newspapers, children’s census records

Where did she go to school?
        To-do: NE school census, St. Ludger school records
How long did she go to school?

At school: 1900 US Census, attended 3 months in the previous year (she would have been 5 or 6 years old)

1910 US Census states she had attended school sometime since 1-Sept-1909, when she was 15

        To-do: NE school census, St. Ludger school records
Where did she live?
Rushville, NE in Mar. 1947: SS-5

See father’s and husband’s info

When did she move across the street in Rushville?
To-do: check land records at Sheridan Co. courthouse, Rushville city directories
When did she die?
        29-Apr-1979: Obituary, grave marker, NE state death record

24-Apr-1979: Funeral card

Apr-1979: SSDI

To-do: Rushville Immaculate Conception records, probate records

Where did she die?
        Parkview Nursing Home, Rushville: Obituary
Parkview Lodge N. H.: NE state death record

To-do: Nothing

What was the cause of death?
Pneumonia, Debilitation, Lymphocytic leukemia: NE state death record
        To-do: Nothing
Where is she buried?
        St. Mary’s Cemetery: funeral card, grave marker photo, NE state death record
To do: Nothing

The only important question is where here parents were living when she was born. Her birthplace is given as Creighton, NE, but, if she was born at home, they were closer to Bazile Mills, which currently has about 29 residents. My desire for detail leads me to want to know exactly where my ancestors were born. Since I can seldom know exactly where a mother was when a child was born, I should probably limit myself to the county rather than trying to pinpoint the exact location of a farm and where the house was on that farm.

January 2012: Status of research on Joseph Andrew Huigens

New year, new try at blogging more. Last year's plan to post weekly about one of my grandparents or great-grandparents each month did not go so well. This year I'll try one post a month on them that shares the current status of my research. I've been organizing my research as a series of questions about each person. I then list all the various answers along with the sources and a to-do list of other possible sources. This helps me to identify what I know for sure and what I think I know but don't have a good source for. It also helps me organize research plans. I also plan to use it to add source citations to my TMG database where everything is sourced. This is currently a very small database, unfortunately.

I'll start with my paternal grandfather.

4. Joseph Andrew HUIGENS

What was his full name?

Joseph A HUIGENS: WWI draft registration, 1920 US Census, 1930 US Census, wife’s obituary, grave marker

Joe Andrew HUIGENS: NE state death record

Joseph Andrew HUIGENS: JAH2 birth certificate, SS-5, delayed birth record

To-do: St. Ludger baptism record, newspapers, children’s vital records

Who were his parents?

John HUIGENS and Mary FITZLER: marriage license, NE state death record, “100 years of progress, Creighton, Nebraska, 1874-1974.”, 1912 Nebraska history, SS-5

John HUIGENS and Mary F FITZLER: delayed birth record

John and Mary HUIGENS: 1900 US Census

John and Mary HIGGINS: 1910 US Census

To-do: St. Ludger baptism record, newspapers, parents’ obituaries
When was he born?

9-Mar-1891: Grave marker, obituary, WWI draft registration, marriage license, NE state death record, SS-5, delayed birth record

Mar-1891: 1900 (Age 9) US Census record

1891: 1910 (Age 19), 1920 (Age 28 before 1910 birthday), 1930 (Age 39) US Census records

To-do: St. Ludger baptism record, newspapers

Where was he born?

Creighton, NE: obituary, WWI draft registration, NE state death record, SS-5, delayed birth record

NE: 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 US census records

Section 3 in Logan Twp., Knox Co., NE (10 miles west of Creighton) on family farm if born at home: 1903 Knox County plat map

To-do: find exact location of family in 1891 in land records, newspapers

Where did he go to school?

1912 father’s bio says he is attending the Catholic parochial school

To-do: NE school census, St. Ludger school records

How long did he go to school?

1900 US Census shows he was in school for 8 month in the previous year

1910 US Census states he had attended school sometime since 1-Sept-1909, when he was 18

1912 father’s bio says he is attending the Catholic parochial school, but would have been about 21 years old (How long before publication was the interview done?)

        To-do: NE school census, St. Ludger school records
When did he marry?

18-Feb-1914: his obituary, hand-written note on wedding picture, marriage license

18-Feb-1910: Julia’s obituary (contradicted by 1910 US Census which shows them both single and with their families)

abt 1913 or 1915: Married at ages 22 and 19 according to 1930 US Census [matches  their ages on the 18 Feb 1914 wedding date]

        To-do: St. Ludger marriage record, newspapers
Where did he marry?
        St. Ludger Catholic Church, Creighton: obituary, marriage license
        To-do: St. Ludger marriage record, newspapers
Where did he farm in Knox Co.

His father left the farm in Nov-1904 according to bio, but he was only 13 then

        Section 9 of 1920 Logan Twp. map says “John Parkhurst, Jos Huigens (contract)”

“P. O. Walnut, R. 1. O. 160 ac., sec. 9; R. 160 ac., sec. 11; R. 320 ac., sec. 3.” : Farmer's Directory of Logan Precinct 1920 Atlas  (O= owns R = rents)

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/county/knox/1920atlas/logan.htm

To-do: Knox County land records, county directories

When did he move his family to Sheridan Co.?
      Before Jan. 1926: Obituary
Before 12-Feb-1927: My dad’s birth date

To-do: Knox Co. land records, Sheridan Co. land records, County directories, newspapers from both counties

Why did he move west?
        To-do: Knox Co. land records, newspapers from both counties
Where was the farm in Sheridan Co.? Who owned it?

        Rushville Precinct: 1930 US Census

Logan C. Musser owned it: notes of 7 Mar 2010 conversation with 

Mom

NW of Rushville, within walking distance: 2011 emails with Mom

Box 514, Rushville, NE in Oct. 1942: SS-5

        To-do: Sheridan Co. land records, county directories, ask Mom
When did he retire to Rushville?
To-do: ask Mom, Sheridan Co. directories and land records, 

newspapers
What did he do for a living?
Farmer: WWI draft registration card, 1920 US Census, 1930 US 

Census
Worked for Consumers Oil & Refining Co., Rawlins, WY in Oct. 

1942: SS-5
To-do: Directories
When did he die?
        8-Nov-1957: Obituary, grave marker, NE state death record
        To-do: Rushville Immaculate Conception church records, probate records; died before the  

SSDI started
Where did he die?

At home: Obituary

At his home in the city [Rushville]: NE state death record

To-do: Nothing

What was the cause of death?
        Lingering illness: Obituary
        Uremia due to Chronic Glomerulonephritis: NE state death record
To-do: Nothing

Where is he buried?
        St. Mary’s Cemetery: Obit, grave marker photo

To-do: Nothing

The purple marked questions are the extra, nice to have that's more family history than genealogy. I haven't decided yet which I want to be when I grow up--family historian or genealogist.

The yellow marked questions are where I have a doubt about the exact right answer to the common Birth/Marriage/Death where and when questions. In this case, I think I know where the family was living when my grandfather was born, but I don't have enough info to make an unquestionable claim.